What is kitchen cabinet refacing?
March 1st, 2009
Its when we take your sound and well built cabinets and cover the frames and boxes with new wood or laminates. A good cabinet refacing will cost you 50% less than a new kitchen cabinet install and look just like new kitchen cabinets. Refacing your kitchen can be done with high pressure laminates like the doors and drawers from LeMica Doors .
Solid hardwood doors for a modern or traditional looking kitchen can be installed from Valley Oak Doors . We can also reface your kitchen with beautiful wood veneers. The results can be stunning. We have been doing kitchen design for 30 years and refacing since 1988.
Paul,
I’ve done plenty of laminating and kitchen installations but haven’t ventured into cabinet refacing. Do you get the veneer for the faceframes pre-finished or do you stain and poly it to match the new doors? Does the door manufacturer send you prefinished doors or do you finish them?
Owen
Everything I install is prefinished. Veneer, trim, doors and drawer fronts. The finished product looks like high end cabinets because its all high end products.
You are right, refacing is a great way to save money and still get the stunning results you want. I have had some friends that have done this and they are so pleased with the results. My kitchen needs to be remodeled – looks like I will be contacting you soon!
Paul,
Another question, hopefully not a dumb one…. Do you remove the cabinets to reface them or do you laminate the frames with the cabinets in place?
Owen, you leave the cabinets in place. Its finish carpentry all the way and there is a world of difference between how an experienced career carpenter does it vs a “factory trained” technician. Everyone gets better as they gain experience, but a remodeler is the perfect person to do this work. You remove doors and drawers, lightly sand the boxes and frames and clean ), I use an alcohol wipe. You then apply pre-finished peel and stick veneer or 1/8″ solid wood over the face frames. Install new doors and drawer fronts, new drawer boxes and accessories as requested.
In and out in 4 or 5 days on most jobs. Looks just like all new cabinets. Perfect for a makeover where the customer doesn’t want to remove their stone counters.
Paul,
Thanks for the info, I had always assumed the new veneer got laminated over the face and then trimmed down with a router, obviously this would be difficult to do with cabinets up against walls and countertops on etc.
What you are describing makes much more sense, thanks again.